


Or Shemesh

by Magnolie



Category: NCIS
Genre: Airports, Alternate Universe, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Israel, Post Episode s13e24 Family First, Tony is done with the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 05:00:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6891211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnolie/pseuds/Magnolie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What really happened when Tony took Tali to Israel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Or Shemesh

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I summond this up during the last three hours after seeing the sh*t that they call 13x24. I am so angry at those writers right now, they would have been SO many ways to do this, hell one more scene would have been enough to give Tony and Ziva the happy ending they deserve. This is my version of what should have happened.

The sun shone down hot and glistering on the tall skyscrapers of the Tel Aviv skyline. No matter, the air in their plane was freezing. He had repeatedly told one of the flight attendants to shut down the air conditioning above him – it was broken they had told him and offered him a glass of sparkling wine to apologize. He had refused, although his father had accepted two glasses instead.

Tali sat in his lap, wrapped in a white blanket, sniffing. The little _pumpkin_ (that’s how his father called her) had already been freezing back in Washington, but with her ears hurting at the start and the cold air now blowing down on her; she was absolutely ready to arrive back home, where the high mid-May temperatures would accommodate her better.

“Look at that Junior, the beach is longer than the one in Miami!”

Tony only turned his head slightly, glancing out of the window, but not seeing.

“Mhm.” Was his short reply, as the bundle in his arm shifted, exposing her bare legs and aiming for the floor.

“No, no, no we’re landing soon, you can’t run around,” he lifted her up again. Tali squealed, fighting him off and giving him a hard time to get her back up again. Her hair was entirely tousled by then, her mother’s brown curls going everywhere. One hung right down her nose as she grimaced and reached for her father’s ears.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the captain has turned the seat belt signs on again, thus please do now return to your seats as we get ready for landing. We kindly ask you to move your seat into a upright position and securely store away all luggage. Thank you very much on behalf all cabin crew.”

She repeated it again in Hebrew as his father took Tali for a moment, giving Tony space and time to adjust their tables and buckle up again. As soon as he was done, Tali reached for him, gibbering something in Hebrew ending every of what he presumed where sentences, with _Abbah_.

He smiled and took her in his arms again, wrapping her in her blanket; a goodbye gift of Tim’s and Abby’s who had driven them to Dullas International the preceding night.

Tony placed a small kiss on his daughter’s head as she snuggled against him. He wasn’t sure how much the tiny girl understood of what he or his father said. He had learned to recognize Hebrew words; he had listened to Ziva speaking the language so often he had developed a feeling for it. Sometimes he could make out something he knew the meaning of, and even if he was sure Tali would quickly pick up English if he and his father kept speaking it to her, it saddened him that she would forget her mother’s language sooner or later.

As he caught another glimpse out of the airplane window, the setting sun colored the White City in a deep orange. He could see Jaffo from afar, the old town, where Ziva had taken him one day, where they had share ice-cream in a narrow alley and she had rested her head on his shoulder when they had set down in the later afternoon and enjoyed the remainder of the warm, Israeli sun.

For a moment, it felt like tons of water were pouring down on him, burying him and making it hard to breath. Then, the plane began its final decent.  


They waited for most of the other passengers to get up and leave the plane. An astonishing number of them were Orthodox Jews, probably returning from family-visits in the States. There were a number of younger adults too, most likely entering the country on one of the many Taglit-programs, holidays offered to Jewish kids all over the world that took them to Israel for almost free.  
There were some families too.

Right when his father urged him to finally get up, Tony noticed that the air conditioning had turned been turned off, the system finally seemed to work again. He unfastened his seatbelt and lifted Tali up, carrying her through the plane and setting her down in the gangway. She took his father’s hand as Senior began to joke and make her laugh. Tony took their luggage, breathing heavily and observing them for a moment before he moved. He had not reckoned that it would be this hard.

It took them ages to get to the immigration counters. He didn’t remember Tel Aviv airport to be this massive, but until they were waiting in line, a good thirty minutes of walking had passed. Tali was grumpy now, reaching for him to take her up , then, when he had lifted her, reached for his father before she started turning around as if she was looking for something and repeatedly said the word that still tore his heart wide open.

_Imma. Imma._

“Imma’s not here Tali.”

He was glad his father said it. He couldn’t have borne it.

 

When they finally reached the counter, the bald man behind the glass scrutinized him thoroughly.

He checked all their passports, Tony had requested an American one for his daughter so he would hopefully avoid trouble upon leaving the country with an Israeli child that did not have his name, but something seemed rather odd when his opposite scrutinized the papers.

“Please wait a moment,” he said with a heavy accent before he lowered his voice and spoke into the microphone attached to his shoulder.

“Is everything alright?” Tony asked and turned to his father who had already been checked through.

“Yes, sir, there are just some questions about the girl.”

“I am not married to the mother, that’s why our names don’t match, but I-“

“There will be an immigration-officer here shortly.”

Tony sighed loudly and massaged his temple. Tali sat on his left arm, getting heavy. He had been up all night and all he wanted was to lie down in a bed and sleep. He had signed confirmation of fatherhood both in English and Hebrew, he even had obtained Tali’s birth certificate from the embassy where they had been very helpful to accommodate Eli David’s granddaughter.

It took an additional ten minutes until a young woman came their way. Not actually dressed like an immigration-office, but rather like IDF.

“Imma! Imma!” Tali exclaimed, and Tony rubbed his tired eyes.

“Tali, imma isn’t here,” he whispered as he greeted the young woman.

“I’m sorry to hold you up sir, we’ve been asked to have an eye out for your daughter’s passport, but I can assure you there is nothing wrong.” She smiled at Tali.

Tony lifted his daughter up, signing his father to take her for a moment.

“Is this about her grandfather? Or her mother’s brother?” He quietly asked the officer as they headed down through a number of doors.

“I am very sorry sir, I really can’t tell, all I know is to escort you to a quieter part of the airport until I hear from my supervisor.”

“Listen,” he stopped her, “we’ve been through a lot the last couple of weeks, and I can assure you a ten hour flight with a toddler did not make that any better. I just need us to have a good night’s sleep and not to be worrying about-“

“Sir, I understand what you are saying, I can assure you that I’ll do my best to find out why her passport flagged and let you know if I can.”

She put a comforting hand on his right arm and gave him an encouraging smile.

“You might want to sit here while you wait.”

She had guided them to a long corridor with a window façade that stretched out the very end of it. Behind the glass, a number of smaller airplanes had been parked in the evening sun. Some of them looked like military jets, others like private vessels.

“What is this all about?” His father asked him, sitting down in one of the chairs next to a door and letting Tali roam freely in the long, but closed space as the officer left them through the next door.

“She said her passport flagged,” Tony shrugged tiredly, “if you’re asking me, this is Orli trying to having an eye on us.”

“Maybe they’re just trying to be supportive,” his father proposed looking at Tali pressing her face and hands to the glass.

“No, no I don’t want them to be supportive. She’s not staying here, we’re not staying here. I don’t want Mossad to have place in her life. That was Z- her mother’s domain, not mine.”

His father scrutinized him closely.

“You still won’t say her name,” he whispered.

Tony sighed and got up abruptly, turning away from his father and walking towards the windows.

He could smell his own sweat and his throat was itchingly dry as he leaned his forehead against the cold glass and breathed in deeply.  Before his inner eye he saw her, her shining face as she had lain next to him during that last night before they had said goodbye, her hair in disarray as he had never seen it before, her hand in his, lovingly kissing his cheek, silently praying the night would never pass.

He should have stayed with her then. He should have just stayed with her. He should have visited her, he should have called more often at least. They asked him if he blamed her for anything, for not telling him about his daughter. He didn’t. He only blamed himself for his stupidity, for not coming to terms about it earlier. He should have gotten down on one knee that night or at least called off work for another month. He was close to tears when he felt something at his leg.

Tali had silently waddled over to him and hugged it tightly.

“Abbah ohevet” she mumbled.

Tony looked down to her before he carefully lifted her into his arms.

“Ve abbah ohev Tali.” He kissed both of her cheeks and adjusted her necklace, “you’re tired too, aren’t you?”

Her eyes were half closed as her tiny fingers toyed with the star around her neck.

“We’ll be out of here in no time, I promise.”

Tali simply put both her hands around Tony’s neck and rested her head against his neckline, closing her eyes. He carried her over to where his father sat and took a seat next to him.

“Ziva would be ever so proud of you Junior.”

Tony gave him a weak nod and wrapped his daughter into the blanket again, before he leaned against the cold, white wall.

It wasn’t his intention to close his eyes or fall asleep at all, but ever since the news had broken, he hadn’t gotten much sleep, and as the little bundle on his chest was fast asleep, he simply couldn’t keep his eyes open much longer and drifted into a light, dreamless sleep.

 

Tony would have probably not awoken so soon, had the door at the other end of the corridor not loudly opened. At first he didn’t even bother, the office had left them through the door they were sitting next to, so it wasn’t her, but Tali had other plans.

As he sleepily heard steps approaching, his daughter shifted.

“Imma. Imma!” she exclaimed again, trying to crawl down from his lap.

He almost did not have the heart to tell her yet again that her mother wasn’t here that she would not ever be with them again, but when he finally tried to, Tali had already escaped him.

He rolled his shoulders and sat up straight, looking into the direction she had run.

He felt like his heart stopped. His lungs were sucked dry of air, as if all life had been squeezed out of them. There it was again, that feeling of the tons of waters coming right at him, smashing him into a hard floor. For a moment he considered that he was still asleep, but he wasn’t.

She bent down to lift her daughter up, her hair longer now and her skin darker as she smiled and said something he couldn’t understand from afar. His tired legs lifted him up as if they had been made only for this day, for this very moment, as the love of his life stood mere meters away, risen from the ashes like a phoenix.

She caught his glance then, holding Tali to her chest, kissing her forehead. She looked pained.

A few long strides took him towards her until nothing but their daughter separated them. Ziva caressed her brown curls. There were tears in her eyes.

“I am so, so very sorry Tony,” she breathed before he took her head in his hands and pressed his lips to hers, “they told me to lay low until they knew more, they said they’d send Tali to you so she would be out of harm’s way and I should have never, I did not want you to find out like this, but it was all already decided on when I woke up in the hospital and I-“ he cut her off again with another kiss before he hugged them both tightly, Tali squeaking happily in between them.

“No explaining necessary,” he whispered as what felt like a million pounds fell from his shoulders. There was nothing but joy in her marvelous eyes as he felt as if the entire universe stretched out before them, opening the gates to a life he had never thought he could have again. Endless possibilities and the eternity of time seemed to form right here in this very airport corridor. He’d never leave her again, not for a day he swore to himself.

“Ziva David, you never cease to surprise me.”

After that, the world around them ceased to exist and the only thing he still sensed was the laughter of his girls, safe and secure in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Or Shemesh - sunlight  
> Ohve/Ohevet - to love  
> Ve - and  
> Abbah - Father (Dad)  
> Imma - Mother (Mom)


End file.
